Downtown Parking

By Stephanie G. Frisch

Steps to take now and groundwork to lay for the "not-so-distant" future.

There are three action areas the City must undertake immediately:
1.Immediately form a Parking District Advisory Committee to study alternative parking district types and parking strategies including funding sources and the area to be covered by a district. A recommendation and a course of action could be made with a report back to the City Council within 90 days.

2.Bring the City's parking policy current by:

a) Incorporating the best ideas from the Historic Town Center Master Plan.
b) Updating parking requirements considering projects in process now (a new parking study has been commissioned by the City Council).

a) Plan B is for the City to consider taking legal action against the State to retain control of the parcels.
b) Plan C is to develop a private source for funding to purchase the land for a parking facility and its construction.

There are several short term fixes for making more parking spots available, but in the end it all boils down to the need for at least one parking structure downtown. Short term fixes: several red curbs are too long, some streets could benefit by diagonal parking. A plan could be developed for employee and volunteer parking that would minimize impact on downtown prime parking locations.